Editors have many reasons to pay more attention to retraction and correction notices. For one, scientists often cite papers after they’ve been retracted, and a clear, unambiguous note explaining why the findings are no longer valid might help to reduce that. But, more importantly, a vaguely worded note that includes further claims from researchers whose work has been seriously questioned, in turn raises questions about the integrity of the journal itself, and about the overall scientific record.
— Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, Nature (480, 22 December 2011, pp. 449-450.

Norway Killer Cultural Christian, Practical Darwinian

Initial news reports about mass murderer Anders Breivik, who slew over 90 civilians in his home country on July 23, described him as a “right-wing fundamentalist Christian.” Now that his 1500-page manifesto has been published, it is clear that any associations with Christianity were cultural and political, not personal. His prime motivation was to halt the Islamization of “Christian” Europe brought on by political correctness and multiculturalism. A review of his writings show him closer to secular science and the social Darwinists than to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

WND first started challenging the depictions of Breivik as a Christian on the 23rd. Then on the 24th, WNDposted the entire Breivik manifesto and described him as a Darwinian, not a ‘Christian’ in the usual sense of someone who believes in Jesus Christ the Son of God and submits to Him as Lord and Savior.

Breivik quotes the Bible extensively, as he does other books of history or philosophy; but his citations are taken to justify his terrorism as a form of national self-defense. It is clear his intent was not to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, but to rationalize his plan to go on a one-man crusade – not against Muslims directly, but against the liberal Labor Party in his own country that he felt was contributing to the destruction of Western civilization.

Support for Darwinian ideas can be seen in several places in his manifesto:

While arguing against the feminist destruction of marriage, he said, approvingly, “Marriage is not a ‘conspiracy to oppress women’, it’s the reason why we’re here. And it’s not a religious thing, either. According to strict, atheist Darwinism, the purpose of life is to reproduce.”

While lambasting political correctness, he spoke approvingly of social Darwinism: “Social-darwinism was the norm before the [sic] 1950. Back then, it was allowed to say what we feel. Now, however, we have to disguise our preferences to avoid the horrible consequences of being labeled as a genetical preferentialist.”

Supporting segregation in Africa, he said, “Nevertheless, people who are very short sighted will consider these policies quite cynical or darwinistic. However, long term, it is the most humanistic and responsible approach.”

The first thing he said when describing his vision of a perfect Europe was: “‘Logic’ and rationalist thought (a certain degree of national Darwinism) should be the fundament [sic] of our societies.”

As for his family background, it is clear neither of his parents, step-parents or siblings were Bible-believing Christians, and in his lengthy description of his personal life and beliefs, Biblical Christianity appeared to be the farthest thing from his mind. His “conservatism” was more about whether he allied with skinhead neo-Nazi hip-hop vs. leftist heavy-metal music. His personal summary of his political views is: “Cultural conservative, revolutionary conservative, Vienna school of thought, economically liberal.”

As for his religious views, he describes them as “Christian, Protestant but I support a reformation of Protestantism leading to it being absorbed by Catholisism [sic]. The typical ‘Protestant Labour Church’ has to be deconstructed as its creation was an attempt to abolish the Church.” He continued, “I went from moderately to [sic] agnostic to moderately religious,” but elsewhere made it clear his religion is cultural, not personal: “If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.”

It is doubtful any Bible-believing Christ follower would accept this definition of a Christian. So when he calls himself “100% Christian” he is speaking merely of his affinity for Christian political tradition of the West, not a commitment to obey Christ. “However, I strongly object to the current suicidal path of the Catholic Church but especially the Protestant Church,” he continued. “I support a Church that believes in self defence and who [sic] are willing to fight for its principles and values, at least resist the efforts put forth to exterminate it gradually,” by which he means the creeping Muslim influence in his country. Further evidence of his big-tent cultural “Christianity” is this excerpt about those he could accept into his revolutionary movement: “If you want to fight for the cross and die under the ‘cross of the martyrs’ it’s required that you are a practising Christian, a Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist (cultural Christian). The cultural factors are more important than your personal relationship with God, Jesus or the holy spirit. Even Odinists can fight with us or by our side as brothers in this fight as long as they accept the founding principles” of his radical group. Odinists are pagan followers of Norse mythology.

Certainly Biblical creation was never a pillar of his worldview. “As for the Church and science, it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings. Europe has always been the cradle of science and it must always continue to be that way,” he said, adding, “Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I’m not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am a supporter of a monocultural Christian Europe.” Books that influenced him most include Darwin’s Origin and the works of Hobbes, Machiavelli, Marx and Engels, and Ayn Rand. He also spoke favorably of positive eugenics to preserve Nordic races from extinction.

His long rant includes methods for building bombs and weapons of mass destruction, and ends with large pictures of himself, one of them holding a high-tech bazooka, wearing a patch “Marxist Hunter” stating, “Multiculti-Traitor Hunting Permit.” See also Uncommon Descent for more commentary on Breivik’s views.

This is a man who coldly shot 80 young people at a youth camp after blowing up a building and killing 7 others. It’s a very disturbing story of a disturbed rock-head, a pathological narcissist and xenophobic egotist who had some bad experiences with Muslims in Norway and decided to go on his own personal crusade against forces he perceived were undermining his Nordic heritage. Calling this guy a conservative or right-wing Christian fundamentalist makes no more sense than applying those labels to members of the Nazi party. Hitler also welcomed cultural Christians or pagans into his movement provided they wanted to preserve pagan Norse heritage and were willing to kill anyone in their path to achieve their goals (all in the name of “self defense,” of course).

It took a little longer to expose this guy as a Darwin sympathizer, partly because of the length of his diatribe, and because of his frequent references to the Bible and to “Christianity”. Do any of his goals sound like those of Jesus Christ, Paul and the apostles? Clearly not; they are polar opposites. Like cultists, Breivik went on a hunt for proof texts that would support his views on “self defense” but his actions were anything but defensive; he shot civilians in cold blood that had no defenses. It was a cowardly, selfish act by a madman who used history and books to rationalize his hate. Christianity gets blamed for a lot of things that are absolutely contrary to the New Testament. Some pastors are dumping the label “Christian” for that very reason; it has become an empty term (what on earth is a “Christian atheist”?), preferring instead “Christ follower.”

Clearly, Breivik is a CINO (Christian in name only), not a Christ follower. His real heart lies with Darwin. Once again, we have seen how deadly the Darwinian world view is. Like the Columbine killers (11/22/2006), the teenage nihilists (11/12/2009), the Finnish murderer (11/08/2007), and James von Brunn (06/14/2009), Breivik used Darwinian thinking to concoct deadly plans and commit heinous murders, coldly and systematically executed in the tradition of Mao and Pol Pot, justified in the name of survival of the fittest. It is vital that true Christians point out to media their error when they try to associate these social-Darwinist political fanatics with Jesus Christ, who taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

Creation Scientist of the Month

The Periodic Table of the Elements is one of the great “patterns” in nature discovered by careful, painstaking work in chemistry by many scientists over many years. The one who is most famous for putting the pieces together in a systematic way is our scientist of the month, Dmitri Mendeleev.